According to Internet security software company Symantec (and I’m interested to know exactly how they studied this), cyber crime now generates more revenue than drug trafficking.
In light of this, Symantec’s newly released Norton Internet Security 2010 is a welcome sight, and improves over the 2009 edition in a number of ways. Although never failing to test well in protection ability, NIS 2009 was somewhat heavy and tended to slow Windows down. The 2010 edition is much more light weight. It also installs and updates itself in minutes, before silently ascending into the sphere of electronic guardian angels. But if you do have any problems you will be happy to know Norton’s technical support is also timely and effective, according to NZHerald.
Joining the Internet Security battlefront, Microsoft also released its own security software on September 30th of this year: Microsoft Security Essentials. And while Norton Internet Security 2010 comes at a good price, Microsoft’s is free.
Still, Microsoft doesn’t pretend their software is equal to security giants like Norton and McAfee, and says its software is targeted for the “50 to 60 percent [of PC users] who don’t have, or won’t pay for, antivirus protection, anti-malware protection…”
In an independent study by UK-based Davis Technology Lab, Norton Antivirus 2009 performed much better than Microsoft Security Essentials in in-depth scans and real-time protection.
One of the most notable features of Norton, and one of the perks to being a leading Internet security company, is their file reputation rating technology. Norton is able to offer a reputation rating of any file being considered for download. To this, they appeal to their vast reservoir of data collected by Norton software installed around the world, as it scans millions of files and sends back the results.
Norton also manages and saves web passwords in profiles that can then be saved on a flash drive and securely used on other PCs. And Internet browsing becomes much safer, as it highlights search results to show whether a site is listed as safe, risky, or downright dangerous.
